Last November at Anime NYC, I stumbled upon Studio Sukoon, the cutest booth selling these kawaii fruity pebbles scented candles. I bought a cute little bunny and a cute cake candle and it’s been in my bathroom since because I love the way it smells and how cute it looks. A month later, I learned they offered a candle making workshop for decorating gingerbread house candles but unfortunately I couldn’t make any of the dates. Recently this year, they started offering more classes to decorate cake candles and this fall, they’re offering a new pumpkin cake candle class so obviously I signed myself right up!
As soon as I saw the instagram reel on the seasonally offered exclusive, I knew I had to do it. And since my Disney World vacation was cancelled last week due to Hurricane Milton wreaking havoc on Florida, my October calendar suddenly freed up and I was able to do more fall activities that I’ve been wanting to do, like this class and signed up for the first one offering the new pumpkin candle.
We showed up 5 minutes late due to traffic but still made it to the class without missing any crucial information. We had enough time to pick out all our pieces, learn how to practice pouring our wax a drops and practice a few times before finalizing our candles and still have extra time left over before the class officially ended, so honestly you have more than enough time for your session.
Upon entering the studio, there are tables set up with all the tools you need ready. You have your tray to collect your deco pieces, tweezers, a revolving cake stand, silicone practice cake base, cup of wax, and even a little sample sheet with designs in case you need some inspiration. There are also shelves with premade candles for sale, displayed to give you more ideas. If you're drawing a blank, I'd recommend watching their Instagram reels and tagged photos for ideas from previously made designs from past visitors.
First you’ll head over to the shelves with the bottled scents. You can smell each one and decide which one you want for your candle. There were various scents available from cozy warm fall scents to fruity, fresh cotton and floral so there was a nice variety.Then underneath that shelf, you’ll pick your candle base. For this session, there were pumpkin bases and round cake bases available. The pumpkins were available in two shades of orange, a pastel orange and one a slight tinge darker (probably due to mixing different batches). The round cake bases were available in a wider range of colors; pink, yellow, green, blue and purple. They were set up in an aesthetic rainbow order for you to pick from. I picked the princess peach scent to go with my pumpkin candle even though they did have a few fall scents to choose from but unfortunately I’m more of a fresh light floral scent girly than warm fall smells. Odd, I know. I’m not that crazy about pumpkin spice scents and flavors as much as I love October and Halloween.
Once you select your scent and base, you can return them to your table and grab your tray and head over to the tables with trays and trays of candle deco pieces. You can pick as many as you’d like, and your tray even comes with a circle template so you can brainstorm how you want to arrange the pieces as you try to select a theme/design to put it altogether. The circle template was meant more for the cake candles so I found that I may have overestimated how many I could fit on my pumpkin candle. But no worries, it’s always better to have extra pieces so you can improvise as you decorate.
After you have all your pieces picked out, you can return to your table and watch a small tutorial from Jessica, Studio Sukoon’s founder, on how to mix your scents with your wax and know when the consistency is right and ready to pour on top of your candle, and how to create that “drip” effect. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time. You get a silicone cake mold to practice on and the wax stays just the right consistency just long enough for you to get a few practices in before you decide to finally pull the trigger on your actual candle. If you don’t like how your drips are coming out, simply take your popsicle stick and scrape it back into your cup, mix it up with the remaining wax and try again. If your wax starts to solidify too much, just raise your hand and Jessica will be right over to help soften the wax up.
When you’re finally ready to commit to your candle, the fun part comes into play. You pour, pour, pour, and then use your popsicle stick to guide the drips as you rotate the cake stand. Once the drips are to your liking, grab your tweezer and decorate that baby up with your deco pieces! You can always get up and get more pieces too if you think it’s just not enough. I decorated my pumpkin with just a light drip effect and a pastel Halloween theme. I wax-glued a cute little pink hat to my cute trick or treating ghost, added a matching pink gravestone, cute bunny (because duh), mini pumpkin, pink hearts in the middle with some candles surrounding it almost like a witch’s love potion/spell being cast. I accented the back with some cute leaves sticking out for a pop of fall color. And then I added a pink bow in front because why not, lol. I was going to add stars and cake swirls but then realized it would’ve been way too busy (I know, I know, who am I kidding) and the drip effect wouldn’t been seen as well anymore. In the end, I think my cute little design makes for a cute Halloween. Very demure. (It's since replaced my bunny candle in the bathroom and I love how it looks to add a seasonal pop of personality that's more to my touch than the regular basic girl pumpkin spice fall decor.)
At some point, Jessica will be around to help “glue” your candle to a base to place inside a clear box to help transport home after your done. The glue is just more wax, to help keep the candle in place but not affect the design of your candle.
As soon as you’re done decorating, you can let it cool and enjoy this time to take as many pics as you want of your creation, and browse the rest of the store. I ended up buying cute little mini versions of our candles because they were just so cute.
I do want to note that this was not sponsored, my sister and I booked and paid for this experience on our own, and I do want to mention that it is a bit pricey at $65 per person for the class, but when you get there, you’ll see why. The price includes the cost of materials of the candle you’re making and unlimited pieces to choose from and use to decorate (you don’t have to pay per piece as it’s all one inclusive pricing), the scents provided, and the packaging to help transport it home safely in while it dries without touching anything. You’ll see the table where Jessica pours all her love into as she handmakes all these pieces herself and it’s a LOT of work. From mixing all the colors and testing scents and making all the deco pieces from all the molds and hand painting all the tiny details, it’s a one woman show and you can tell it’s a labor of love. While being a pricy experience, I would definitely recommend it and plan on going back again for another holiday session.
What I love about this unique experience is you get to bring home your own custom creation and every candle is unique. I haven’t seen anything so cute like this anywhere else. There’s so many combinations of colors, scents, designs and even the drips are unique to each maker’s skill level. It’s a fun activity to do with friends and family or even a cute date night. I made this part of our sister date night and it was a lot of fun learning to do this together. I also love knowing that through these classes you’re supporting an AAPI female-owned small business with eco-friendly sustainable practices as they re-use, recycle and upcycle all of their materials, as well as donate a portion of their earnings monthly to animal rescues/shelters. The class is offered several times throughout the month, with weekends always selling out so if you’re interested in doing this, I suggest signing up asap. I’m excited to sign up this December for their gingerbread house workshop and finally get to check that off my bucket list!
